Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MAGYARS RIP LIONS INTO BITS
THE press described the clash between England and Hungary at Wembley in November, 1953 as ‘The Match of the Century’.
Hungary were the Olympic champions, unbeaten in 24 games, while England were unbeaten at home for four years.
Ten days before the match, Hungary could only draw with
Sweden – and skipper Ferenc Puskas missed a penalty.
In his autobiography, Puskas remembered the reaction of the Hungarian press. “They were saying: ‘It’s not worth you going over to Wembley if you can’t do better than that,’” he wrote. ‘”The English will murder you.’” And Three Lions boss Walter Winterbottom was confident... “Nobody could beat us at home.”
England captain Billy Wright recalled: “The Hungarians had on strange, lightweight boots, cut away like slippers under the ankle bone.
“I turned to big Stan Mortensen and said, ‘We should be all right here, Stan, they haven’t got the proper kit’.”
Puskas, described as having a “rolypoly physique” by Tom Finney, noticed England’s confidence start to shrink before the match kicked off in front of 105,000 fans.
“They watched us juggling the ball in the warm-up and looked apprehensive,” he wrote and within a minute of the kick-off, Hungary were ahead, Nandor Hidegkuti smacking a right-foot shot into the top corner.
Puskas said the early strike “gave us a fantastic feeling of confidence... it let us relax and play.”
By the break, Hungary were 4-2 up – and Puskas had scored his legendary “drag back” goal.
Puskas received a pass on the edge of the six-yard box and his first touch gave Billy Wright a sniff of the ball. Wright said he “moved in to tackle firmly... nine times out of 10 that tackle would have won the ball”.
On this occasion, Puskas produced a move that commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme reckoned “belonged in the music hall”. He dragged the ball away from Wright’s lunge and belted an unstoppable left-foot shot just inside keeper Gil Merrick’s near post.
Puskas wrote: “Everyone loved the goal, but the truth is, I had to get out of the way quickly or Billy Wright would have really clobbered me.”
That goal put Hungary 3-1 ahead and 10 minutes after the break they were 6-2 up. Puskas teed up Hidegkuti for the sixth, his hat-trick goal, before Alf Ramsey pulled one back from the penalty spot for a final score of 6-3.